Chapter Fifty-Eight:
Cloud caught Caia before she hit the ground, still reeling from watching his sister casually gut and behead a man. He checked her for injuries, but couldn't see any. Nearby, her summon continued to howl in pain. He couldn't deal with that right now, he just needed to focus on Caia.
Vincent stepped around Niro's body, both pieces, and crouched in front of them. He looked at Caia. Did she look paler than usual?
"Yes." Vincent said. He met Cloud's frown. "You need to get her to Aeva. Now."
Caia stirred in his arms. "Hero…"
"I'll stay with the summon. You need to get to Aeva." He didn't have to add that it may already be too late. They all heard it.
Cloud called Cid and had him come as close as possible, but it still took him precious minutes to get Caia to the healer. Carrying an unconscious woman who had one large black wing was no easy feat. If he didn't have his own supernatural strength, he'd never have managed it.
Barret was waiting for him at the top of the ladder to take his burden from him so he could climb the rest of the way.
"Urgh." He grunted. "But she's so tiny."
If he wasn't worried sick about her, he might have smiled. "Only fools judge Caia by her appearance." And the last one was in two pieces on the ground below them.
He hoisted himself up onto the deck. And took Caia back from Barret.
"C'mon." His friend said. "Aeva's ready for her."
He ran to the sick bay.
"Here!" Aeva instructed when he came through the door. She had a bed set up, within arms reach of Elio's tank, and Cloud laid his burden there. Barret took a seat by the door. Tifa was already in the room, keeping a close eye on their nephew. Aeva began to gently run her hands over Caia's body. He could have told her not to bother. There was no external injury to find.
"What happened?" She demanded, still assessing Caia. Her hands now glowed with some kind of spell. Sensing for internal injuries.
He shook his head, trying to clear it and explain everything that had happened. She needed injury information first. "Niro had a summon. It was…insubstantial. It went inside her chest—" Aeva began examining her chest more closely. "—and when it came out, it pulled—'' he paused. Barret didn't know Sephiroth had been the other soul sharing Caia's body all this time. And he wasn't about to change that. One thing at a time. "It pulled the other soul out of Caia's body."
Aeva's eyes snapped to him. Tifa hissed out a breath. "He's not here anymore?"
Cloud shook his head.
"Where then?"
"I don't know. Just that he's not there. The summon tried to catch him, but…but the materia broke instead."
"What?" Tifa's voice was shocked. Aeva squeezed her shining eyes closed. When she opened them again, she was all business.
"The injury is spiritual. For them to have survived this long, their souls must have bonded in some way, which means she's injured now. There's a few things I can try, but Cloud—" She trailed off looking at him then to Tifa. And he knew what she had been about to say.
His sister might not survive this.
The Lifestream. It always reached for him with open arms, only to recoil in horror when it touched the monster that made up so much of his DNA.
Forty-eight percent. The number had burned off the page when he'd learned it. Forty. Eight. Percent.
And the rest? A vile excuse of a father and a mother who hadn't even fought for him.
Then he'd died and not even the Planet had wanted him. Not that Jenova would have let her have him anyway. He was Jenova's prize specimen. Her creature. She'd had her claws in him since birth. He'd never had a chance.
She had pulled him through the Lifestream then recreated his body to her specifications. A few modifications. Improvements she deemed them. He'd despised every one.
The five years he'd spent trapped in the freezing hell of her making, watching from afar the atrocities she committed with his likeness, were a torment he'd live again—if only he could go back to Caia right now.
But this monster's dreams never came true and he had little hope this one would either.
He could imagine Caia's irate response to that.
You're not a monster.
Forty-Eight percent. Forty. Eight.
You know who the real monsters are?
He knew. Deep down, he'd always known. But knowing and knowing were two different things.
Say it. She'd make him. He knew she would. Acknowledging is the first step in believing. How he wished it were true. How he wished she were here. It was too quiet in his head.
To feel close to her, he answered the imagined question.
"The real monsters are the ones who chose to experiment on a child."
For a moment, he thought he could feel her, his wildcat, in the Lifestream with him, but the feeling was gone as quickly as it came and he was left alone.
Alone. Finally alone with the Planet. Jenova was long gone. She dumped all that he was the second time they'd entered, holding on to her hatred and his power. His humanity called to the Planet and she had other plans. Now he was free from her. Now he could finally merge with the Planet and have rest.
Except…he had something to live for. His daughter, all grown up. Grandchildren he wanted to meet. Elio to hold and love again.
And Caia. He'd never expected the gift of such intimacy with another person.
So he hung on a little bit longer, resisting the final merge to the Planet, and begged whatever god or goddess might listen. Please let him go back to Caia. He didn't know how, but he knew, he knew, she was dying.
And there was nothing he could do.